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Show 296 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY other, number thirteen, situated on the east bank of the same river, At this point the Spaniards left the river and marched over a snowy route to another valley, two days’ journey. Here they found, in sight of one another, four more pueblos, the Quereses, as Castafio calls them, apparently the Quirix of Coronado, and the Queres of Espejo. These were situate somewhere near the junction of the Galisteo with the Rio Grande. The eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth pueblos, about a league apart, were visited and submitted to the Spaniards, who called them respectively, San Marcos, San Lucas, and San Cristobal. The ruins of these old pueblos are to be wife, but the principales selected his partner for him, a custom since the earliest days; she was a woman wiser than many and more beautiful than the moon, and their home was happy with many children. The pueblo prospered; it was strong in battle, and defeated its enemies; they took many captives, who worked in the fields and brought the pine trees from the forest. Bah-tah-ko was wise, and his rule was famous. One day, Bah-tah-ko, who was now old and infirm, called the council together in the great kiva; he had returned from a hunting trip in the mountains; he told that he had again seen the eagle of his boyhood; that the eagle had said that he and his people must move or else they would be destroyed by another pestilence; that they must abandon their fields; must wall up the entrances to their pueblo, so that, were it afterwards necessary, they could return to their old homes. He told them they must travel to the east till they came to a great river, now known to be the Rio del Norte, which ran in a deep canyon on a great plain; that a ford would be found above the entrance on the opposite side ; that they must cross at this ford, the sign of which would be an eagle, hovering high in the air above them; then they would travel for two days, when they would come to a crystal stream running down from the everlasting snows of the high mountains into a beautiful valley that would be rich with fruit; that the mountains were filled with game and the rivers full of fish. This was to be their home and here they would build a great pueblo, which the eagle said should be called Taos. Some of the council did not care to leave their homes and abandon the old pueblo; they said the cacique was growing old and childish; that he feared the Apache. But Bah-tah-ko was strong, and the people decided to follow his instructions, and the order was given from the walls of the pueblo. The sun rose seven times and on the eighth day the people started for the east, and in a journey of twenty days arrived at the spot which the eagle had described to Bah-tah-ko; mountains, two days the people saw the eagle, Soaring near the clouds. One day Bah-tah-ko feather as he circled high above the spot where tah-ko watched saw the pueblo high above the the eagle drop @ stands; Babthe feather as it fell; he picked it up and on the now spot the building of the pueblo was commenced, For many days our ancients kept the feather im the kiva, but it is gone now. mithey had no ace Gil tek wattsa que ; . wandered over hills and mountains for many ~~ to lead them; they finally came to a great river in the great pueblo called Isleta. They know this because im Isleta the old men“ 4 know ’ th the st ory of Bah-t. ah-ko f he same language as at Taos. , and they speak the hor Led Sez A i, J Don Luis de Velasco, Viceroy of New Spain |